Nile Gardiner is a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator. A former aide to Margaret Thatcher, Gardiner has served as a foreign policy adviser to two US presidential campaigns. He appears frequently on American and British television, including Fox News Channel, BBC, and Fox Business Network.

Forget Arnie – Wendi Murdoch is the new Terminator

Well over a million Americans watched today’s House of Commons committee hearing featuring Rupert and James Murdoch – it was broadcast live on Fox News for three hours as well as on other news networks. But Wendi Murdoch’s brilliant defence of her husband as he was attacked by a moronic left-wing activist will be watched by many millions more, as the scenes are inevitably replayed by every television station across the country. While security remained paralysed, the Yale-educated Mrs. Murdoch whacked the assailant with extraordinary strength and speed, in a display of leadership that I imagine most Americans would hugely admire.

Shaving foam aside, I think Rupert Murdoch came out of this hearing largely unscathed. The US Left is baying for his blood on this side of the pond but I suspect their efforts will be in vain. If anything, Murdoch senior came across today as a straight talking, extremely hard working and brutally honest figure, disgusted with the sickening and repulsive actions of a small number of his former employees at the News of the World.

There has been a great deal of speculation that the UK tabloid scandal will cross the Atlantic and threaten Murdoch’s media empire in the States. This is really a pipedream that America’s liberal elites would undoubtedly love to see but won’t become a reality – not least because there is not a shred of evidence so far of any connection between the actions of unscrupulous journalists at the News of the World and Murdoch’s operations in the United States.

Rupert Murdoch has played a huge role in breaking the Left’s suffocating stranglehold over the US media, and has transformed the cable news landscape with the stunning success of Fox News. I don’t expect that role will change, and America is immensely better off with sections of the press that actually challenge the mainstream media and don’t bow to the whims of the White House.